Tab Key

[morganlbusse]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you are not suppose to use the tab key but something else when starting new paragraphs in your manuscript (my brain is in a fog right now lol). Can someone remind me what I am suppose to do? Thanks!

[journeyman]

I knew it, everything started going in the dust bin when they electrified typewriters! Oh for the day of the manual Smith Corona and the venerable Linotype machine. Take that fonts! Take that formatting! Can we all say Ctrl-K-Q ? Oh, and where's my eraser and whiteout?

Seriously, use the tab key rather than hitting the space bar five or six times.

Honest!

[beckyminor]

I usually set my ruler at the top of my word document to do a hanging indent for the beginning of each paragraph. But that formatting doesn't always translate when you copy/paste into other places, so you have to be mindful of that. But maybe I'm committing some kind of writing sin that I don't realize...any other gurus to chime in here?

[metalikhan]

Feb 9, 2010 20:42:05 GMT -5 journeyman said:

I knew it, everything started going in the dust bin when they electrified typewriters! Oh for the day of the manual Smith Corona and the venerable Linotype machine. Take that fonts! Take that formatting! Can we all say Ctrl-K-Q ? Oh, and where's my eraser and whiteout?

Seriously, use the tab key rather than hitting the space bar five or six times.

My manual Smith Corona had a broken tab key so I spent years hitting the space bar five times. Hard habit to break! I'm finally getting used to the computer's tab key.

The hanging indent doesn't play nice when I try to use it so I gave up on that one.

morwena, I've seen different requirements when checking out submission guidelines. It seems to be on a case-by-case basis as to how each mag wants a manuscript submitted. I've seen a few that do not want indents at all -- they want a double space between paragraphs. It's like other formatting issues; some mags want a ms in RTF while others want Plain Text or...?
I guess it depends on what kind of software they use and what formats are most compatible with it.

Don't know about you, but it really strains my computer versatility!

[Jeff Gerke]

Use the indent feature in Word. Give every new paragraph a .5" indent as your default.

You find this option under this menu: Format > Paragraph.

[morganlbusse]

Thank you Jeff, that's what I was looking for

[beckyminor]

Feb 10, 2010 10:14:04 GMT -5 Jeff Gerke said:

Use the indent feature in Word. Give every new paragraph a .5" indent as your default.

You find this option under this menu: Format > Paragraph.

Aha...it took me a minute to find that in Word 2007 (recent upgrade for me...I'm so behind) but they call it a "first line indent" in the paragraph dialogue box. Some day, I'm really going to learn all the technical aspects of the program so I can stop being mystified or just guessing well.

[Jeff Gerke]

Using the indent feature instead of the tab key (or five hits of the spacebar) is one of those subtle intangibles that helps your proposal or manuscript. It tells the editor or agent that you are a professional who knows how to use the primary tools of the trade.

Back in the day, when an editor or agent would never see the manuscript except in a printout hard copy, it wouldn't matter how you gave paragraphs their indent. Even now, it's a very minor thing. But I always think it's better to have the intangibles working for you instead of against you. You never know when your proposal is just one intangible away from getting taken to committe instead of being rejected.

Jeff

[Kristen]

Feb 11, 2010 7:59:20 GMT -5 Jeff Gerke said:

Using the indent feature instead of the tab key (or five hits of the spacebar) is one of those subtle intangibles that helps your proposal or manuscript. It tells the editor or agent that you are a professional who knows how to use the primary tools of the trade.

It also helps the page designer.